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Battles - The Battle of Le Hamel, 1918

The Battle of Le Hamel, a successful engagement launched
by the Allies on 4 July 1918, was of itself a small action, but was a
necessary precursor to further advances by
Sir
Henry Rawlinson's Fourth Army on the Western Front.

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It was the latest in a series of local actions
conducted by the Allies to end in success, and came at a time when the
offensive morale of the German army was starting to fall; at the same time
the Germans were falling prey to the worldwide
influenza pandemic, with
severe results in the confined trench environment.

The attack was intended to straighten the
salient opposite Rawlinson's British Fourth Army east of Amiens (occupied by
Georg von
der Marwitz's Second Army) by capturing Le Hamel and its flanking woods.
This would remove the danger that subsequent large-scale artillery
operations conducted by Rawlinson would suffer exposure to German flanking
fire.

The operation was overseen by new Australian
commander
John Monash and executed by his 4th Division. In planning the
action Monash - an advocate of so-called 'peaceful penetration' - made
effective use of both massed machine guns and heavy
tanks (some 60 of the
latter) while ensuring absolute secrecy in planning. He also eschewed
the usual tactic of
preliminary bombardment, which invariably served only to
warn the enemy that an attack was imminent.

The operation was not however exclusively an
Australian affair; four U.S. companies, currently training with the
Australians, were also drafted in.

When launched on 4th July 1918 with a
co-ordinated barrage of tanks,
artillery and warplanes,
the Australians and Americans found the lines
opposite to be only lightly defended, and the attack caught the Germans
entirely by surprise.

Both Le Hamel and its woods were easily taken
by the Australians and Americans in just 93 minutes, and the German line
effectively straightened, the salient removed.

Casualties among the Allies were at the cost
of approximately 1,000 men. In turn the Allies captured some 1,500
German prisoners.